User talk:Aleal
The Uploading of Images Andrew, I need your help with something. For the first time, I'm trying to upload an image myself, and I'm using the advice you gave me on how to do it a while back. I'm using Microsoft Paint trying to upload it, but whenever I hit the upload button, I get this message saying it's being uploaded from an illegal file. It turns up only under "My Pictures." I don't know what the heck is up with that. Perhaps you could give me a good tip? Garrettk41 00:28, January 19, 2011 (UTC) :Hi, Garrett! I was sick yesterday. I'll park an explanation of the images on your talk page in a moment, for easier reference. However, for the page editing, some older IE versions caused issues with the new Wikia design, but it should resemble the image here. On the far right, you need to use your mouse to left-click the drop down arrow (it's small but you can see it right next to the "New Topic" bar, again to the right) and then click the appropriate option (in your case, only edit and possibly move will be visible, since you're not an admin). In this case, it would be "edit" and start a new topic manually at the top of the page (Wikia defaults the automatic new topic to the bottom, unless of course it's the first topic on a page so it makes no difference). -- Andrew Leal (talk) 00:14, January 20, 2011 (UTC) Spit Hi, Andrew! I posted a question over on Talk:Spit regarding an edit you made a while back on the credit for Spit's voice. Do you have any insight (or do you even remember making that edit?) -- Ryan (talk) 18:46, January 15, 2011 (UTC) :Hi! I've seen the question (only after Michael's response, given the flood of other activity in recent changes and other admin issues) but I've also been spending this week swamped by a deadline which I finally met, and I need to search through a pile of discs for Aliens in the Family first, so give me time. I think you're probably right but naturally I want to do an actual side by side comparison first. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 20:33, January 15, 2011 (UTC) Chinese Bear Hi! How should we handle a page that's called 大熊贝尔蓝色的家? It's the Chinese dub of Bear in the Big Blue House. I didn't want to move it until I talked to you, O Guru of Dubbing! -- Ken (talk) 03:33, January 9, 2011 (UTC) :Done. I still haven't been doing much here beyond the odd admin or talkpage stuff, I know, and I've been spending a lot of time on the "doblaje" (Spanish dubbing) wiki, including identifying the Spanish voice of Rod Serling! (It was the same for both Twilight Zone and Night Gallery). The Chinese Bear was easy, since the user supplied a literal translation, so I moved it to that. It's in one of our policy pages, by the way, that article titles should never use non-standard characters, for several reasons but chiefly because it often shows up as just a row of boxes unless one has the proper language translation filter, and in some cases the add-on can't even be downloaded without a licensed version of MS Word which not everyone has; so it basically becomes exclusionary and confusing. Including it *within* the article is fine, usually after the translated title (i.e. "Blah blah" in parentheses). We've mostly avoided it on character and people names, except cases like Ouyang Lianzi, when it's there not only for complete accuracy but because for ages all acrylic translations were wrong), and a few others. I know one of the Category:Muppet Wiki Policy and Standards pages mentions it somewhere, but I don't feel like looking for it. Hope your new year has been going well thus far, Ken! -- Andrew Leal (talk) 04:08, January 9, 2011 (UTC) ::Yeah, I knew we don't use non-standard characters, but I didn't know if having a comma in the English title would confuse things more, since we can't tell if there's a comma in the original (or something that would mean the same thing), and I wasn't sure how accurate that English translation was. I guess if it isn't, somebody who can read Chinese will come on and tell us, like we've seen for some other language things. Just for fun, I also noticed that sometimes things get re-translated years after they're known as a certain title in English. The Italian film The Bicycle Thief is now being called Bicycle Thieves on DVD, but I don't know who decided to make the change. -- Ken (talk) 04:50, January 9, 2011 (UTC) ::P.S. I looked up the guy you mentioned for Rod Serling, and I found it hilarious that he also did Sterling Holloway voices, and Jim Henson's Link Hogthrob! -- Ken (talk) 04:59, January 9, 2011 (UTC) Merry Christmas +2! Thanks for your updates! I'm writing over here because I've got some other conversations going with some other people, but I was curious. What do you have on the Salvation Army? I'm intrigued. All I can think of is the group of people playing during "I Hate Christmas", but I can't tell if those were real uniforms. -- Ken (talk) 05:31, December 28, 2010 (UTC) thanks, and a problem already thanks for the welcome. my attempt at adding this image http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/File:Ss-tape.jpg to http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/The_Sesame_Street_Book_%26_Record failed. It's the only reason I joined! -- bangs head on keyboard -- :Hey, Andrew, I forgot all about this picture! I saw it when it was first added, and I got really excited. I wanted to ask this person for more information, but then I forgot about it. I'll meet you over on this person's talk page. -- Ken (talk) 03:22, December 22, 2010 (UTC) Blocking Hi! I have a feeling that Stinky&Jake Returns Again might be somebody who's been blocked before. -- Ken (talk) 05:18, December 4, 2010 (UTC) :Yeah, there was no question here. Done and done! -- Andrew Leal (talk) 06:01, December 4, 2010 (UTC) ::I think Jermboy27bocus is a "repeater", too. -- Ken (talk) 05:54, December 6, 2010 (UTC) :::I don't know if he was a repeater or not (probably), but his additions were made-up nonsense. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 06:10, December 6, 2010 (UTC) ::::Yeah, I looked it up in the block log, and we've had Jermboy(number) a few times. ::::Hey, a lot of our regulars are missing tonight, but happy 5th birthday to Muppet Wiki! Join the party over on Current Events! -- Ken (talk) 06:40, December 6, 2010 (UTC) ::::Question, Andrew: Is Thepuppetmaker7004 the same person you blocked before? -- Max (talk) 03:47, December 26, 2010 (UTC) :::::It is. Good catch. I'm currently undoing their changes (the block was based mainly on the fake "Elma" page). -- Andrew Leal (talk) 03:52, December 26, 2010 (UTC) Sorry to rock your blocking boat Andrew, but Themuppetmaker7's come back yet again as KermitTheFrogFan180. -- Jon (talk) 03:41, December 28, 2010 (UTC) :These people have no conception of holidays. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 03:43, December 28, 2010 (UTC) how can I be an admin? What requirement do I need to become an admin? A page called Muppet Wiki: Requests for adminship would work. -''BRAINULATOR9'' 16:08, November 25, 2010 (UTC) :Hi. We don't handle administrator status by request (nor do a substantial number of Wikis) so there's no need for such a page. Instead, it's decided over a substantial period of time (from months to years even) based on a user's reliability, tone when interacting with others, how active they are (will they be around to help handle issues), and other factors, and at present, we have all the admins needed. Thanks for asking though! -- Andrew Leal (talk) 17:51, November 25, 2010 (UTC) ::Okay. Thanks for answering. -''BRAINULATOR9'' 23:04, November 27, 2010 (UTC) Felina! I love your El Paso page! I wish Debbie Reynolds had been a Muppet Show guest! -- Ken (talk) 05:08, November 6, 2010 (UTC) John Darling Hi! I posted the John Darling strips... A strange bit of Muppet history for you to enjoy. I've also got a question on the talk page that you may be able to help with.... -- Danny (talk) 00:47, September 5, 2010 (UTC) :What a trove! Some image problems with the last half of the uploads due to the continuing Wiki issues, but I've been able to just directly download a couple (others are giving me error messages). It's definitely far more elaborate than I would have imagined. Definitely a funny and weird part of Muppet history, and a reminder of when Tom Batiuk (at least as a writer) wasn't a bitter, possibly insane misanthrope. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 01:01, September 5, 2010 (UTC) :And now the images are all working. Yay! I like the disdain on both Frank and Piggy in the 1980 strip. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 01:05, September 5, 2010 (UTC) Music and Dubbing Hi! I've come across something that I thought was strange. Thanks to a tip from Steven (Rocketstevo), I'm watching the first 14 episodes of Iftah Ya Simsim on YouTube, and making notes of dubbed stuff that I recognize. But I've noticed something I've never seen before. Not only do they dub sketches, but in some cases they perform entirely new music tracks (both vocal and instrumental) on top of US footage! For example, I've been able to figure out some of the Joe Raposo animal films, but the music is totally different! Also, listen to what they did to "The Alligator King" (at the 3:17 mark here). The strangest one I've seen so far is how they took "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and made it into a song in a minor key! (That's at 3:30 here.) It's interesting because they had to come up with something that's entirely quarter notes, but we don't even know if they used the same words! So my question is, if a dubbed song sounds totally different musically, and right now we don't know the translation, do we still link back to the US song's page? I've been putting "Different music than US version" on the episode page, but I didn't know if we wanted to get into that, either. I've never seen Plaza Sesamo use different music during a Muppet song! -- Ken (talk) 21:38, September 4, 2010 (UTC) :They do it all the time on Sesamstrasse (mostly songs before the mid-90's). Example: "Hier am Teich" ("On My Pond"). - Oscarfan 21:53, September 4, 2010 (UTC) ::Yeah, it's usually changed orchestrations (the German version of "Put Down the Duckie" is recognisable but significantly different) but sometimes other changes happen. So yeah, a "different score/different orchestration" note would work, as fits. Most of the co-productions have folks on staff not just to translate lyrics but to re-orchestrate (or swap out entirely in the instances you mention). -- Andrew Leal (talk) 01:03, September 5, 2010 (UTC) :::Now I just found out, after comparing them side by side, that they used a different take of an Ernie and Bert sketch. I'm learning all kinds of things! -- Ken (talk) 08:07, September 5, 2010 (UTC) Thanks! Just a quick thanks for taking care of... uh... vermin 'round here! :) — Julian (talk) 22:14, July 7, 2010 (UTC) :You're welcome. MOs of these folks tend to be too obviously repeated, and the shall we say phraseology of the message tended to awaken one's curiosity at the start (cryptically conversing so as not to encourage the trolls is fun!) -- Andrew Leal (talk) 03:53, July 8, 2010 (UTC) ::It is fun, even though they aren't. I guess they are giving back, in a way. ;) — Julian (talk) 11:51, July 8, 2010 (UTC) :::Hmmm... there seem to be some more, going by the excessive upload of pre-existing images. — Julian (talk) 16:42, August 31, 2010 (UTC) :::Got it. Thanks for letting me know! UrbanOverdose 21:58, September 3, 2010 (UTC) ::::Here's another one, who has an urge to show off his level of maturity. — Julian (talk) 01:43, September 30, 2010 (UTC) Art Lovers Crackhead moment of the day. I swear this is a rift on a famous painting, but I cannot dial it up. I've been going through books at home and haven't found anything, but I so remember a painting with people in gown dancing in the rain, almost Fantasia-like. Any clues? -- Nate (talk) 16:57, August 5, 2010 (UTC) :Nope. My first thought is simply that "Those Honkers have great choreography." -- Andrew Leal (talk) 17:15, August 5, 2010 (UTC) Category talk:Sesame Street Video Any thoughts? -- Ken (talk) 04:12, July 28, 2010 (UTC) :Not as of yet. I tend to agree with what's being said so far. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 17:50, July 28, 2010 (UTC) ::Okay, thanks! By the way, I was hoping you saw the news about free Sesame shows from around the world. Now you have more dubbing to play with! (And I love hearing all of the different theme songs, and music from the various countries!) -- Ken (talk) 19:40, July 31, 2010 (UTC) Touched by a Muppet Hi! I don't know why I didn't think of this before, but I've already thought of 5 people who were on Touched by an Angel, and I know there are tons more. So I put it on Projects with Muppet Cast Connections. I'll bet I can beat 20 people! -- Ken (talk) 04:36, July 25, 2010 (UTC) I did it! -- Ken (talk) 06:52, August 3, 2010 (UTC) Admin stuff Hey again Margaret. Can you please ban, or look into action against someone. I figured an admin had, but they didn't. Scott deleted a bunch of their stuff awhile ago, but they are continuing adding mis-information and uploading stuff. I'm cranky and don't feel like leaving a talk page message today. But thought I'd point it out to you to handle :) -- Nate (talk) 22:26, July 22, 2010 (UTC) :Just got back from taking a job assessment (with likely mixed results; more programming and math on there than I'd expected when applying for a writing position, no actual writing sample portion), but done and done. Yeah, a multiple offender like that, adding personal fantasies and falsehoods, that's always an outright block and not worth engaging them in discussion (like waaaaay back, the nut who kept making Ice Age 2 pages). -- Andrew Leal (talk) 22:33, July 22, 2010 (UTC) ::Thank you. I hate having to point that stuff out, but it irritated me today. Gotta love PMS and stress. Hope the gig works out. I wondered how that was going since last you mentioned it. -- Nate (talk) 22:39, July 22, 2010 (UTC) :::Hey, with so many edits, especially when good users like you and Henrik and Oscarfan are prolific, it's easier for a nut or troll, especially one who's not doing it on a huge scale, to sneak in. So yeah, an admin sometimes needs to be notified (I had to tell some other users to do that and not just stick a "You are blocked" notice on that user's page, since, umm, they're not blocked and might not be if the admin thinks another admin must have taken care of it, and so on). Really, that's partly why I don't bother with the blocked notice much anymore, I just take care of it. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 22:43, July 22, 2010 (UTC) Master of Movies Hey Kiddo. You know tons about movies. Does this picture ring a bell for you? When I saw it I had a total "I HAVE SEEN THIS BEFORE" type of deal, but I cannot dial it up. I thought maybe it was Labyrinth for a split second, but it's driving me nuts because I really swear its a nod to something and I don't remember what. Or I'm on crack. Another possibility. -- Nate (talk) 22:12, July 16, 2010 (UTC) :I'm specifically talking about the costumes too. Mainly the lobster and tree. And maybe the mad hatter outfit (minus it behind a bear). -- Nate (talk) 22:13, July 16, 2010 (UTC) ::Oh man, it rings a bell for me too, the tree creature that is (I think it's some black and white B movie, but I can't place it, though the claw hands are more Where the Wild Things Are). The lobster's just coincidence I think, or fits with the card and the hatter bear (you know, the lobster quadrille and such from Alice). I'll try to do some digging but I can swear I've seen that still (but never the actual source, or I'd have pinned it already). -- Andrew Leal (talk) 23:20, July 16, 2010 (UTC) :::Is that Winnie the Pooh in the metal helmet? -- Ken (talk) 04:04, July 17, 2010 (UTC) ::::They're spoofing the Henson Company Masquerade Balls. Which book is that from, Nate? —Scott (talk) 04:46, July 17, 2010 (UTC) ::::::And that solves the mystery! I knew I'd seen the tree things in a still (but somehow it had me thinking "Bad Filipino movie" instead!) Good work, Scott. And the book is Baby Piggy's Night at the Ball, Scott. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 04:47, July 17, 2010 (UTC) :::::::Ah, thanks. I don't have that one. But I love that Lauren Attinello threw a cameo of herself into the book :) —Scott (talk) 04:54, July 17, 2010 (UTC) Oh thank you Scott. How faboo that I wasn't imagining it has significance. We'll have to work that into the wiki somewhere. -- Nate (talk) 15:13, July 19, 2010 (UTC) Carlton Cuse? Who was Carlton Cuse? He's mentioned on The Swedish Chef's page as somebody who has spoken mock Swedish, but no other pages link to him. -- Ken (talk) 01:32, July 11, 2010 (UTC) :I blanked on him as well. He's one of the Lost producers, from one of the segments where the Muppets visited him. I'd change that redlink to a link to the appropriate section on the Lost page (yeah, it counts as interaction, but anything notable or relevant to the Muppets, that he created Lost and did some segments with the Mupps, is already on the page, with pictures). -- Andrew Leal (talk) 01:34, July 11, 2010 (UTC) Red link Why do we have a red link for Heather Graham? What did she do? -- Ken (talk) 03:39, July 8, 2010 (UTC) :She was in Lost in Space, though we just had a discussion at Category talk:Creature Shop Movie Actors. I think she'd still qualify though, but I don't feel like watching the movie to check. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 03:48, July 8, 2010 (UTC) ::Oh, okay. I thought she might have been on Sesame Street in the '80's, but that was after my time. Thanks! -- Ken (talk) 04:18, July 8, 2010 (UTC) ''Jim Henson's Muppet Stories Hey Andrew. I have a question for you. How do you think ''Stories to Share looks? I got the idea for doing a table for the series of books, as well as The Sesame Street Treasury and The Sesame Street Library. Kermit's All-Time Favorites is how we originally had the pages, with a gallery for each story (with one picture scan). Stories to Share has the table that I got the idea for using, and Stories to Grow On is another option that I thought of, using the pictures on the left hand side of the page. I'm fond of Stories to Share myself, especially if we use it for the other series of books (which is one of my long term project that I want to start working on). I'll throw this out to others to see what they think looks best too. Let me know what you think. -- Nate (talk) 21:59, July 6, 2010 (UTC) :Stories to Grow On works best since we have a large cover and info box for each title. The table is thus either squished or we need to use the spacer code, which tends to create gaps when there's not enough text. I'd suggest trying for a compromise between the two (with the information clear but without all the headers; "picture" and "synopses" are redundant here anyway). The summaries aren't very readable in the To Share format, all cramped and the farthest to the right, and they're more likely to interest most folks right away (along with the image) than the author/illustrator info. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 22:07, July 6, 2010 (UTC) ::Take a look at Stories to Share again and tell me what you think now. -- Nate (talk) 15:07, July 7, 2010 (UTC) :::I like it! It takes care of nearly all the concerns I have (the info box Scott moved looks really awkward now, though. I may just try to beef up the leader a bit; maybe even move the kind of "Characters include" list there, though not in full for one-shots, so one can have a kind of at-a-glance overview for book appearances). Probably be awhile before I get to it though (I'm behind on a lot of things; potential reasonably lucrative but out of town employment may be approaching!) Great work, Nate! -- 20:44, July 7, 2010 (UTC) Twas a group effort, but I think I'm going to incorporate it on other pages as well. -- Nate (talk) 21:28, July 7, 2010 (UTC) K-Tel Ad Happy 4th! Animation guru that you are, what do you think of this? I know the LP was licensed, but who do you think did the animation for this? It would have been around 1975. -- Ken (talk) 00:34, July 5, 2010 (UTC) :Hi! We just finished our annual viewing of 1776. No idea who did the animation. It looks rather like they may have taken interior/back jacket art and used that as the basis, so there's no discernible studio style. If I ever come across anything, though, I'll let you know. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 01:00, July 5, 2010 (UTC) ruh oh Please tell me under our new guidelines that Bart the Bear won't have to go. lol. Here I am talking about making rules, and I'm already wanting to bend them, if he doesn't qualify, I think he would. -- Nate (talk) 15:32, July 2, 2010 (UTC) :Heh, I'm working on the talk page right now. Fortunately, there were animatronic bears and doubles, so while that's a little different (to date, there's never been an animatronic Rob Schneider double say, thank heavens), he counts. I'm not sure about Tai though (I think she had scenes with the animatonic Ape, but). -- Andrew Leal (talk) 15:36, July 2, 2010 (UTC) ::Confusion comes again. What about Ned Beatty and Gulliver's Travels. It was produced by the Henson Company, so I'm guessing all actors involved are at least celebrities, but they would not be creature shop actors, correct? Just as Matthew Broderick and the voice cast of Good Boy! aren't in the creature shop voice actors category. -- Nate (talk) 20:54, July 2, 2010 (UTC) :::Gulliver's Travels is Henson-produced with Creature Shop effects (namely the wasp, Yahoo make-up, and I think some other make-up or digital effects), so as I said twice, I figured we'd leave those alone right now (I don't see a lot of point in deleting Shelley Thompson, who plays Sarah's stepmother, because she's not seen with Ludo). We're dealing with Creature Shop-effects for non-Henson productions (and Good Boy! is Henson but not creature at all). -- 21:05, July 2, 2010 (UTC) Just making sure. I made a list of the actors as well, and am running it past what you have posted on the talk page. Looks like we were (mostly) on the same track. It was Gulliver that threw me a little. -- Nate (talk) 21:10, July 2, 2010 (UTC) :Yeah. If we want to attack Gulliver later, that's fine, but it wouldn't make sense unless it was applied consistently to all Henson/Creature Shop movies so everyone who didn't interact would have to go and, since those whole films take place in wholly Henson/Creature "universes," it seems fair to apply the rules differently just as we allow insert celebrities on Sesame Street even if they never worked with the Muppets (right now we have an effective way to treat those). And it saves any reworking on John Gielgud. As long as we don't get into "Yahoo #2" or "Woman Scared by Buddy #6" territory and we haven't, it works. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 21:15, July 2, 2010 (UTC) We did it! We now have 100 shows on Minor TV Mentions! -- Ken (talk) 06:58, July 1, 2010 (UTC) Too much fun with photoshop I wasn't sure if you or Ken would enjoy this more, so I thought I'd put it on your talk page, and figured he and everyone else might see it. I stumbled on these two pages today and just thought some of them were too fun not to share with a few people here. This one and this one just cracked me up. It all started from trying to identify this painting used in animation segments on Sesame Street, and I'm still a little stumped on who the artist is. Any clue from you? I know I know who it is, but I'm drawing a blank (no pun intended). -- Nate (talk) 22:38, June 25, 2010 (UTC) Sing a song of references Hey kiddo. I chimed in, finally, on the discussion over at Creature Shop Movie actors. Also, what are your thoughts on celebrity references being only those celebrities directly referenced, and not those whose roles in a film where spoofed by the Muppets. In other words, Morgan Freeman or Julia Roberts aren't celebrity references just because Kermit was shown in Freeman's role in Driving Miss Daisy or Miss Piggy in Roberts' role in Pretty Woman. The films are the reference, not the actors in the roles. On the flip side, someone like Burt Reynolds is a celebrity reference, as his name was the pun in an Elmo's World episode. I think it makes sense, but wanted to make sure I wasn't using "blonde logic." -- Nate (talk) 15:24, June 24, 2010 (UTC) : Hi! I have a question too. :) You mentioned on that Creature Shop actors discussion that we'd established clear guidelines on interaction for celebrities. Where did we do that? I was off-wiki a lot for the last month, so I might have missed it -- I'm just curious and want to catch up. -- Danny (talk) 16:18, June 24, 2010 (UTC) ::Some time back, and you were around for it (as far as Muppets interacting with celebrities and what qualifies a person; a few questions crop up here and there, like photos at red carpet events, but it's given us a solid point of reference). See Category talk:Celebrities. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 17:39, June 24, 2010 (UTC) :::Oh, okay. You said that "by now" we have firm guidelines on Celebrities, and I read that as: We just figured this out recently. I looked at the Celebrities talk and it was from 2008, so I thought I'd missed something. :) My mistake! -- Danny (talk) 19:04, June 24, 2010 (UTC) ::::Yeah, I meant by now in contrast to the earliest days of the Wiki when we all just created pages for anybody who struck our fancy. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 20:25, June 24, 2010 (UTC) Good Boy! pages So sorry about the Good Boy pages! I didn't think they would mind, since the characters from Cats & Dogs have their own pages. Thanks for the message! Andrew's talk archive *Muppet Wiki Talk Archives